Recycling Facts

Did you know that the number of glass bottles and jars that we throw out every month are enough to fill up a giant skyscraper? Here are more recycling facts….

Recycling is important because the energy used to recycle a product is less than the energy used to create something new. Our health also benefits from recycling, as it removes pollution and harmful substances from the waste stream. This is not all; we have to remember that the raw materials on Earth will not last for a lifetime, it is thus important to save them!

Paper

Paper made from raw materials produce about 73% more air pollution that recycled paper.

250,000,000 trees can be saved each year if all our newspapers are recycled.

Each week’s Sunday paper is responsible for the cutting down of 500,000 trees.

6% of a tree is used up to produce 500 sheets of paper.

A single person uses paper products worth two pine trees every year.

A simple gesture, like reusing a grocery bag for a shopping trip, can save about 60,000 trees.

For every ton of recycled newspaper, we save 17 trees.

Water

A simple act, like turning off the water faucet while brushing your teeth, can save 9 gallons of water.

About 15% of the water in your house is used by your washing machine.

Nearly 35 gallons of water is consumed during a 5-minute shower.

About 40% of all the pure water in your house is flushed down the toilet.

Glass

Glass that is dumped in the landfills will never decompose.

Glass can be used again and again and is 100% recyclable.

A 100-watt light bulb can burn for four hours by the energy saved from recycling one glass bottle.

Recycling a bottle will cause 50% less water pollution and 20% less air pollution.

A new glass food jar contains at least 35% recycled glass.

Plastic

It can take plastic products up to 500 years to decompose.

As many as 1,000,000 sea creatures can be killed by plastic bags and garbage that are thrown into the ocean.

It is believed that Americans use 2.5 million plastic bottles every year.